WORK AND PENSIONS

Opportunity for All—Sixth Annual Report

Alan Johnson: Today I have published "Opportunity for All—Sixth Annual Report 2004", Cm 6239. The report sets out our strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion, and reports on the indicators used to monitor progress. Copies have been placed in the Library.
	Poverty and social exclusion are deep-rooted problems that have built up over many years and will take time to resolve. Our strategy has been to tackle the root causes of poverty. I am pleased to report substantial progress has been made on a range of our indicators. For example, we have seen improvements for children living in workless households, people of all ages living in homes that are of the set standard of decency, employment rates, including those for disabled people, lone parents, ethnic minority people and people aged 50 and over, and the number of people sleeping rough.
	Undoubtedly there is more to do. Tackling the root causes of poverty takes time as well as commitment and investment. It also requires a partnership across all sectors of society. However, it is exciting that we are now starting to see early signs of some equally deep-rooted change.